The Internet is honestly the perfect vessel for horror.
You can never trust any information uploaded, because you never really know where it came
from.
An air of authenticity can be added to anything, making scary stories extra believable.
Over the years, creepypasta has evolved.
What once was a bunch of campfire stories inputted digitally, has now become a sprawling
network of terrifying information supporting itself and many other connected stories.
The storytelling depth that can be achieved by modern horror maestros is mind-boggling
to say the least, as demonstrated by some of the projects we’re going to discuss today.
ARGs, or Alternate Reality Games, are forms of online interactive storytelling that encourage
community input as information is revealed.
Popularized in ad campaigns for movies like The Blair Witch Project and The Dark Night,
these instances had fans solve puzzles and follow clues in order to be the first to access
promotional materials.
Hardcore fans and logical thinkers could put their knowledge to the test in order to get
leg up on those who weren’t in the know.
Flash forward to today, and we have ARGs referencing other ARGs to put the fear in a whole new
generation of scare-seekers.
This is the horror storytelling of the future, as it encourages people to completely suspend
their disbelief as they dig deeper and deeper into the mysteries presented by the creators.
Online communities band together and feed off the passion and terror of others in the
search for one last clue that will piece everything together.
Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos.
I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and today we’re plumbing the depths of internet
lore as we take a look at the Top 5 Scariest Online ARGs.
Before we get started, make sure to give this video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more
secretive stuff.
Alright, let’s go.
NUMBER FIVE: DAISY BROWN Take a look at this monster.
That alone is enough to draw in horror fans young and old.
Already you want to know why the hell this young girl is feeding a horrific, fleshy goblin-thing.
Daisy’s YouTube channel went up in 2017, and very quickly amassed a sizeable following.
Each video tells the audience a little more about the girl and her monster dependent,
Alan, who was left behind when Daisy’s scientist dad disappeared.
At first, Alan is sweet and helpless, and needs Daisy to take care of him in order to
survive.
Soon, though, he grows and becomes violent and uncontrollable.
All of this is shown to the audience in the form of video logs, which Daisy uploads from
time to time.
In these logs we see her go about her daily life, feeding Alan, reading books, playing
Solitaire.
We never get to see Daisy’s head, but we often do see unexplained injuries show up
on her arms and legs, no doubt sustained from taking care of Alan.
We learn that she lives alone, strange for a girl her age, and that she was always encouraged
to stay inside and avoid the outside world.
She doesn’t know much about anything outside the confines of her house, and even then she
tends to avoid the basement and attic.
Subtle clues placed throughout the videos alert the audience to something very wrong
going on, even if the monsters weren’t included.
We learn about the toxic family environment from before the dad left, and the mental and
physical strain imposed on innocent Daisy throughout her life.
References to books, movies, and different types of plants throughout gave the community
plenty to ponder in between episodes.
As Alan grew stronger, and Daisy less stable, the audience began to really worry for her
safety.
Interactions on Twitter grew more panicky, until the climax of the series.
In the end, these fears were well-founded.
It’s been finished for over a year now, so you can go back and watch it in its entirety.
Grab some sugar water and pizza, and binge the whole thing.
NUMBER FOUR: ALANTUTORIAL Alan again, huh?
This is a different Alan, although there is a very real connection between him and the
plant monster.
We’ll get to that in a bit.
This was originally thought to be a tutorial channel run by a young man with no business
running a tutorial channel.
Alan, a reclusive young man, is seemingly obsessed with giving tutorials a la Expert
Village, but also seems to have no skills or even the slightest inkling about what people
are looking for in a tutorial.
It starts out almost comically, with short videos of Alan babbling incessantly while
he shows the audience how to fill a tiny bin with dirt, or how to pick up a blue chair
off the floor.
People memed on this, and dismissed it as a failure to create compelling content.
However, it soon took a dark twist.
Alan gets locked out of his room, and is left to fend for himself.
He’s not very good at this, but persists in putting out tutorials as he struggles to
survive.
It’s apparent from the start that Alan has poor mental health, and the videos are a coping
mechanism for him.
It’s implied that he is neglected and abused, part of why his tutorials are always so nonsensical.
Eventually, after roughing it for a long while, he is captured and forced to make tutorials
while locked in a small room.
At first Alan rebels, and attempts to make different content, but soon goes back to making
tutorials similar to the ones he made before.
As this happens, the room becomes disgusting and unliveable, and all hope for Alan’s
safety seems lost.
If nothing else, this series is a fascinating descent into madness.
Watching it now, it’s easy to outline the story, but consider that when it was getting
started, all people saw were inconsistently uploaded tutorial videos from a clearly disturbed
person.
It’s fascinating, creepy, and tragic all at the same time.
The community surrounding it has analyzed the themes and events deeply, maybe even too
deeply.
There are arguments about it being a commentary on internet fame, and the monetization of
digital content.
It could also be about influencer culture, the compulsion to go viral, and the lack of
commitment and understanding from many would-be content creators.
NUMBER THREE: THIS HOUSE HAS PEOPLE IN IT Alan again!
Okay, I’ll elaborate.
Alan Resnick is a comedian, visual artist, and filmmaker who is well-known for his contributions
to the Adult Swim lineup of shorts.
He is also one of the most prolific ARG creators out there right now.
Alan from Daisy Brown is a reference to Mr. Resnick, in an attempt to get the audience
to pay closer attention.
Resnick is also the mind behind Alantutorial, which makes a lot of sense if you look at
the rest of his work.
This House Has People in It was created by Resnick, and is an insane, surreal, surveillance-fuelled
journey through the depths of a family’s psyche.
On a first viewing, it appears to be security footage of a family preparing for a birthday
party.
Grandma is watching the baby (and TV), the son is waiting for his guests, mom and dad
are preparing food, and the daughter is phasing through the floor.
Wait, what?
Things then get more and more chaotic as the parents attempt to save the daughter, culminating
in them catching her body with a mattress in the basement.
You could just watch it, feel stressed, and then leave it be.
But that wouldn’t even come close to scratching the surface of all of the mysteries here.
In the video description, there’s a link to the security company’s website.
If you input the correct login credentials (hidden somewhere in the video) you get access
to all sorts of new information.
It turns into a file directory of sorts, with links to everything from the family’s emails,
to a videogame about Boomy the Cat.
Boomy the cat is a very popular character.
He’s a blue cat, and he is also a fast cat.
Kids and adults both seem to really like Boomy.
He is popular on TV and in video games.
In an interview with Vice, Resnick said that he and the team would add infinite new details
forever if they could, and make it a sort of rabbit hole that never ends.
The holy grail would be to make something so convoluted that only the most committed
of sleuth could fully understand.
There is so much to find here, that I can’t even begin to explain it all.
Give it a look yourself, or maybe hop on the Reddit community dedicated to mining more
information.
Just be wary of Lynks disease, okay?
Nobody wants that.
NUMBER TWO: PETSCOP This is a series of YouTube videos that appear
to be a let’s play of a 90’s era PS1 game.
A brightly coloured animal collecting game is soon revealed to be much more than that.
Beneath the bouncy polygons there is a deeply unsettling, violent story of kidnapping, suffering,
and more.
It actually references real-life child killings.
There are 24 videos, the latest being uploaded in late 2019, in which the narrator Paul walks
us through a game he supposedly found.
At first, it seems to be unfinished, with only one level to explore.
The text prompts are strange, and nothing seems to happen as he collects the different
pets made available.
At the end of the first level, Paul ends up in a dark world that was not previously available,
and the rest is history.
Each episode after that reveals more grisly details: children’s graves, creepy sprites,
presences that seem to follow the player around, you name it.
People watching wanted to know whether it was real or not very badly.
Did the game actually exist?
Who made it?
Why is it so disturbing.
The community soon realized that there were even references to the Candace Newmaker incident,
and rebirthing.
This is a real life, controversial story about an adopted child who was killed.
Candace was troubled, and apparently killed some pets.
Her adoptive parents decided to try something called Attachment therapy to see if they could
make her trust them more.
The goal of this is to revert the child back to an infantile state, which of course is
not backed by any sort of science or evidence.
They specifically tried rebirthing therapy, which is where the child would be wrapped
in blankets to simulate the womb and forced to fight their way out.
Candace suffocated, and died the next day.
What makes this truly chilling is the fact that the therapists allowed this to continue
even after Candace begged for her life.
Petscop references this throughout, which led the community to try and find the link
between the two.
Recently, the creator has stepped forward and aired some questions about the game, but
I don’t want to spoil anything.
NUMBER ONE: MARBLE HORNETS The OG Slenderman ARG, the one that started
it all.
Slenderman may seem like a goofy boogeyman at this point, but back in 2009 he was THE
online horror story.
Marble Hornets was the first of many ARGs to explore the mythos surrounding this slender
spectre, and actually set the tone for others to follow.
We are introduced to Jay Merrick, played by series creator Troy Wagner, as he attempts
to piece together the events leading to the disappearance of his friend Alex Kralie, played
by collaborator Joseph DeLage.
Jay goes through some footage from Alex’s unfinished student film, Marble Hornets, and
discovers all sorts of disturbing stuff.
Alex’s mental and physical health were rapidly deteriorating during filming, and a strange,
tall figure can be seen watching from a distance in all sorts of situations.
As Jay tries to find more clues, he begins experiencing the same things as Alex.
This story spanned over three seasons, multiple YouTube channels and social media pages, and
over one hundred episodes in the end.
It is a complex, interwoven, and sprawling narrative that is equal parts noir and horror.
It popularized the use of found-footage, distortion effects, title card narration, proxy characters
for the big bad, and more in the Slenderman ARG world.
Shout outs to EverymanHYBRID, TribeTwelve and Dark Harvest for expanding on the lore,
and making equally excellent Slendy projects.
Marble Hornets is some seriously good stuff, turning a low-budget, for-fun thing into a
full-fledged internet phenomenon.
There is way too much stuff to get into here, like ToTheArk, all the masked and hooded characters,
and The Operator himself.
Plus it spawned a follow-up series, a comic book, and even a studio-backed feature film.
I can’t recommend this one enough, it’s what really pulled me in to online horror
back in 2009, and it still holds up today.
Just remember, everything is fine.
OUTRO Oh man, ARGs are just about the coolest way
to consume horror content.
I just talked for like 10 minutes and didn’t come close to scratching the surface on any
of these.
There’s a wicked channel called NightMind that does really great deep-dives into different
ARGs, would highly recommend.
I can’t wait to see what people do with this format in the future!
It’s still a very young medium.
What do you think?
What is the scariest memory you have from an ARG?
What’s your favourite one?
Let me know down in the comments.
Speaking of comments, let’s have a quick look at some of your more wacky ones from
last time: Ciera Gray says “No spiders, you cannot
have my eyes.
I wonder if it can be killed with a homemade flamethrower.
What do you think Keegan?”
A can of Axe and a barbeque lighter?
Sounds like my kind of spider deterrent.
Just make sure you’re quick, if you miss it’s all over!
Aheira Miles says “And here I thought my watch/read list was long.
I feel like Keegan’s watch and reading list is getting longer and longer.”
My list was long before I hopped on TOP5.
Now it’s a whole book on its own!
I’ll add my list to my reading list…
SideSwipe says “Chicken nuggets” Whats the best sauce?
BBQ?
Sriracha?
Plumb?
PsionicMonk says “We need Digimon Go, makes perfect sense for a phone to be a digivice.”
Oh man, that is a good idea.
Did anyone else have one of those Tamagochi-style digivices when they were a kid?
Digimon, digimon monsters, digimon are the champions.
Shallah 777 says “When did he cut off the mustache?”
At the stroke of midnight, January 1st, 2020.
There’s footage of it somewhere…
And that’s all the time we have for today!
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!